Hygiene: Difference between revisions

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The word '''hygiene''' comes from Greek, and it means "the protection and promotion of health." Keeping the body clean is only part of what it takes to be healthful. In some cases, excessive washing can actually cause health problems.

Misinformation abounds regarding the hygiene of the intact penis. In the United States, especially, doctors tend to be ignorant, misinformed, or simply uninformed concerning the hygenic care of intact men and children, and this happens for a variety of reasons. As of yet, America is primarily country where circumcision is prevalent, and thus intact male genitals are unfamiliar. Many American medical doctors, are ignorant of the subject because they are themselves circumcised, wives to circumcised men, and/or mothers to circumcised children. Additionally, care of the intact male genitals is rarely mentioned in medical school. The foreskin and the proper care for intact genitals tends to be absent in pediatric literature.<ref>Osborn LM, Metcalf TJ, Mariani EM. [http://www.cirp.org/library/hygiene/osborn1/ Hygienic care in uncircumcised infants]. ''Pediatrics'' 1981;67:365-7.</ref>

This this article provides factual information to help medical personnel and parents understand the proper care of the penis in its unaltered state.

One of the most common alibis cited for non-theraputic circumcision is that it is supposed to facilitate hygiene. However, according the "Circumcision Policy Statement" produced by the "Task Force on Circumcision" appointed by the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]], which was published in ''Pediatrics'' in 1999 and reaffirmed on September 1, 2005, "there is little evidence to affirm the association between circumcision status and optimal penile hygiene".<ref>American Academy of Pediatrics: [http://www.cirp.org/library/statements/aap1999/ Circumcision Policy Statement]; Task Force on Circumcision" ''Pediatrics'' Vol 103 No.3 March 1999, pp.686-693. (Statement Reaffirmed Sept. 1, 2005).</ref>

  |first=Errol T  

}}</ref> Retraction cannot be done because the tip of the foreskin is too narrow to pass over the [[glans penis]] and/or the inner foreskin is fused with the glans penis by a [[synechia]]. No attempt should be made to retract a boy's foreskin. Attempts to retract a non-retractile foreskin will injure the boy. Caregivers should wash the outside of the penis as one might wash a finger.<ref>{{REFweb

  |publisher=Doctors Opposing Circumcision

}}</ref> The foreskin is self-cleaning, so no further cleaning is necessary. The first person to retract a boy's foreskin should be the boy himself.<ref>{{REFjournal

  |first=J E